Step By Step 1936-1939. Churchill, Winston S.

First US edition, first printing, of this prescient collection of articles against appeasement. The US edition was published in August 1939, following the first British edition in June. "The American first is taller and more elegant than its English counterpart" (ibid., p. 199). This copy is from the collection of Churchill's bibliographer Ronald Cohen. Churchill's articles were syndicated throughout Europe from 1936 to 1939. His attack on appeasement and calls for Britain to prepare for conflict ran counter to the near-unanimous support for appeasement and peace among the British establishment and led to his exclusion from high office throughout these years. He would soon be vindicated by the German invasion of Poland, and his committed stance earned him the enduring respect of allied opinion as he took on the mantle of Britain's wartime leader. Provenance: Ronald Cohen, with his ownership inscription in pencil on the front free endpaper. Cohen's Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill, published in three volumes in 2006, is the authoritative source for collectors, librarians, and dealers. Cohen A111.2. Richard Langworth, A Connoisseur's Guide to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill, 1998. Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine and front cover lettered in silver on red ground. With dust jacket. Half-tone portrait frontispiece. Unclipped jacket chipped at extremities with a few closed tears, slightly soiled: a fine copy in very good jacket.